Limpopo River bursts it banks in Mozambique

The
Mozambican emergency authorities say the mighty Limpopo River has burst its
banks in the country’s southern province of Gaza.

They are urging people living near the river's banks in Chokwe and Guija districts to seek
higher ground.

A surge down river in Zimbabwe and South Africa raised the level of the river in Mozambique to more that 7.5m - almost 3m above flood alert level.

In 2000 the
Limpopo broke its banks prompting the worst flooding in the country’s history - more than 700 people were killed and almost half a million others were left homeless.

According
to a report on the national independent television station STV, 600 hectares
of crops have already been lost and several roads in the Limpopo Valley have
been cut off the Guija-Chinhacanine, Guija-Chibuto and Chissano-Chibuto
roads.

Further
north, the Save River has, for the second time this year, inundated the town of
Machanga, in the central province of Sofala.

The sharp rise in the level of the
Save has been attributed to torrential rains in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Ghana celebrates: A nation is born

Ghana today marked 60 years of independence with official celebrations, marked with pageantry and colour, taking place at a public square in the capital, Accra (see earlier entries) - but what was it like on 6 March 1957 when it was officially declared an independent nation?

BBC Rewind takes a look back at the events of that day (most of the video has no sound):

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Video caption: Ghana celebrates: A nation is bornGhana celebrates: A nation is born

Alain Gomis' Fespaco pedigree 'saluted'

Alain Gomis is the second director to have won the Golden Stallion twice
Image caption:
Alain Gomis is the second director to have won the Golden Stallion twice

Senegal's President Macky Sall has commended film director Alain Gomis for winning the Golden Stallion of Yennega.

It is the top award at Fespaco - Africa's biggest film festival which wrapped up over the weekend in Burkina Faso' capital, Ouagadougou.

Gomis won the trophy and a cash prize of 20,000,000 CFA ($32,000; £26,000) for his film Felicite, about a Congolese nightclub singer's struggle to care for her son following a motorcycle accident.

The Senegalese news agency APS quotes the president as saying:

Quote Message:
That prestigious distinction rewarding you for your film Felicite follows the one that was awarded to you in 2013 at the same festival. I salute your exceptional pedigree and congratulate you warmly."

That prestigious distinction rewarding you for your film Felicite follows the one that was awarded to you in 2013 at the same festival. I salute your exceptional pedigree and congratulate you warmly."

The Senegalese film director took the Golden Stallion four years ago for the film Tey.

He is the second person to be double winner of the prestigious prize after Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cisse.

Twenty films were up for the Golden Stallion during the seven-day festival.

DR Congo burial of Tshisekedi postponed

Etienne Tshisekedi died in Brussels on 1 FebruaryImage caption: Etienne Tshisekedi died in Brussels on 1 February

The body of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s
veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi is not going to be repatriated this
week as planned.

The family of Mr Tshisekedi,
who died last month in Belgium aged 84, had planned to hold a funeral in DR Congo this coming Saturday.

Mr Tshisekedi's younger brother Gerard Mulumba told the BBC that the family could not agree with the authorities on a burial site in the capital, Kinshasa.

Mr Tshisekedi’s family want the body to be buried at the
headquarters of UDPS, the party he founded.

But the authorities have offered another location: The Gombe
cemetery in the city centre.

There has been no official response yet to the
announcement.

Mr Tshisekedi's death has plunged
the DR Congo into uncertainty as it came amid negotiations between the opposition and government to end a political crisis - triggered by the refusal of President Joseph Kabila to stand down at the end of
his term last December.

Elections are now due before the end of the year and Mr Tshisekedi's son Felix has been chosen to lead the opposition coalition in the negotiations.

Nigerian ex-governor jailed for five years

A court in Nigeria has found a former state governor guilty of corruption in one of the first high-profile convictions in President Muhammadu Buhari's anti-graft war.

James Bala Ngilari has been sentenced to five years in jail for corruption for breaching due process for awarding a contract worth more than $500,000 (£408,000) for the procurement of 25 cars.

Ngilari, from the opposition party People's Democratic Party (PDP), was governor of the north-eastern state of Adamawa from October 2014 to May 2015.

It was one of the three states affected over the last few years by the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.

Ngilari's lawyer pleaded for leniency for his client saying he had made "invaluable contribution when he was the governor of the state during the trying moment of insurgency", the AFP news agency reports.

Judge Nathan Musa said the sentence was a warning to other poilticians:

Quote Message:
It is my hope that his conviction and sentence will serve as a deterrent to serving governors."

It is my hope that his conviction and sentence will serve as a deterrent to serving governors."

Ngilari told reporters as he was taken to a prison van that the judgement was flawed and he would appeal, AFP says.

Ngilari first served as Adamawa's deputy governor but took over as governor after two years following the impeachment of his predecessor over corruption allegations.

Liberia calls for boycott of street sellers

Street selling is a big business in Liberia – and peddling,
mainly by children of school-going age,
has become so uncontrollable in the capital, Monrovia, that it now amounts to a public nuisance.

At every street corner and at traffic lights, children literally
bump into stopping vehicles offering items such as water in plastic sachets and
sweets to passengers.

Driving in central Monrovia is also difficult as pedlars
of all ages block already narrow streets with goods ranging from apples and
other fruits loaded on wheelbarrows to second-hand clothes and shoes.

To try to combat this, the government is now asking passengers
to boycott street sellers and their goods in the hope that once there are no
buyers the pedlars will disappear.

To enhance this campaign, the government has started erecting
anti-street selling billboards in strategic places in the city:

BBCCopyright: BBC

Though in a nation where laws are made and ignored with impunity it is hard to see it being a success.

Analysis: Language row 'a diversionary tactic'

Pumza Fihlani

BBC News, Johannesburg

A South African government spokesperson who insisted on using the Zulu language during an interview in an English-medium radio station is no stranger to controversy.

Lumka Oliphant had to issue a public apology in recent months after hurling insults at critics who had questioned whether her boss was competent enough to run the country's department for social development.

South Africa is a young democracy with a youthful population now asking pressing questions about how to build the unified "rainbow nation" that was envisaged by Nelson Mandela when he became the country's first democratically elected president in 1994.

The divisions left by white-minority rule and the legacy of colonialism remain.

The country has 11 official languages and some argue that the elevation of English above others as the lingua franca of national debate provides evidence of a continued form of "self-colonisation".

However valid that debate is, there are accusations that it was opportunist of the spokeswoman to use it here.

It is being seen as a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the issue at hand - the crisis over social security payments.

Ms Oliphant had been talking to the state broadcaster earlier today in English - and had been on that same radio station a number of times and spoken in English.

She has also addressed many press conferences in English in the past without raising the issue.

UN approves Gambia's army chief

A UN source has told the BBC that the new head of the Gambian army, Masanneh Kinteh, is welcome to visit Gambian troops serving in the peacekeeping mission in Darfur in Sudan.

The UN blocked his predecessor, Ousman Badjie, from making a similar trip after he appeared to back the then-President Yahya Jammeh's attempt to stay in power after he lost elections.

Mr Jammeh eventually left the country, allowing the winner of last year's election, Adama Barrow, to take over.

The UN source said the decision had been made because of the replacement of Gen Badjie, and the new government's commitments to make security sector reforms and respect human rights and the rule of law.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Ousman Badjie was sacked as The Gambia's army chief last month
Image caption:
Ousman Badjie was sacked as The Gambia's army chief last month

Is Kaduna airport ready for Abuja traffic?

Intensive work is underway at Nigeria's Kaduna airport some 190km (120 miles) north of the capital Abuja, ahead of a planned relocation of international flights from the main airport in Abuja.

The airport will handle traffic for the next six weeks while Abuja runway is repaired.

An official from the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigerian (FAAN) told Reuters news agency that workers were working round the clock to have the airport ready.

Most floor and ceiling tiles have been fitted and all air conditioning units have been installed, but electrical fittings are unfinished, chairs for the arrival and departure areas lie strewn about and a car park expansion is incomplete, Reuters reports.

Several international airlines have refused to operate flights to Kaduna as they worry about the safety of their passengers in a region that has been known for kidnappings.

Henrietta Yakubu from the FAA has been telling BBC's Focus on Africa programme about plans to protect passengers, including using luxury buses and police escorts:

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Video caption:
Airlines threatened to stop flying to Abuja due to safety concerns over runway condition
Airlines threatened to stop flying to Abuja due to safety concerns over runway condition

AFPCopyright: AFP

Abuja airport will be closed for six weeksImage caption: Abuja airport will be closed for six weeks

British Airways , Lufthansa and South African Airways have refused to fly into Kaduna. Ethiopian Airlines has however said it will use the alternative airport.

An official from FAAN told Reuters that police have been deployed to the region to ensure passenger safety and that roads leading to the airport had been fixed.

Kaduna airport can handle up to 500 passengers at one time, equivalent to three or four short-haul jets, the report says.

Data from Nigeria's airport authority shows Abuja airport handled 4,859 domestic flights in December compared with the 171 that flew in or out of Kaduna, it adds.

At
the official celebrations at Black Star Square in the capital, Accra, it has been all pomp and pageantry as smartly dressed security and school children
entertained the public to a march pass and gymnastic display, says the BBC’s
Thomas Naadi.

BBCCopyright: BBC

A number of foreign dignitaries, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose first wife Sally was from Ghana, and Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe watched the event.

BBCCopyright: BBC

President Robert Mugabe was among the dignitaries in attendence
Image caption:
President Robert Mugabe was among the dignitaries in attendence

Addressing the crowd, President Nana Akufo-Addo said Ghanaians should mobilise their resources to propel the country to prosperity and urged them to work hard and fight against corruption.

Our reporter says Ghana, which gained independence on 6 March 1957, is still struggling to improve the living conditions of its people.